MSFS20 Ground texturing

[SinusJayCee]

Dear all,

I'm trying to texture some ground areas of my scenery. Thus, I created a polygon and selected one of Asobo's default concrete materials (Squared_Gray) as surface in the properties. However, the result is not very satisfying:



There is some strange blending with the ground and the texture is only applied correctly in the lower part of the screenshot. I also increase the priority of the polygon but with no success.

Do you have any ideas of what I may doing wrong? Is this even the correct method to apply a ground texture?

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[superspud]

I'm a bit stuck with this too. I've reclaimed some land from the sea with a polygon and water exclusion and I can't get the ground texture to show up correctly. It's also covered 80% in grass up close, maybe that's seaweed, that I can't get rid of no matter what I do.

I tried putting an apron on top of the polygon but that seems to add extra confusion and the right texture is even further away than it was before.

 

[SinusJayCee]

I now solved my problem by using aprons to set the ground materials. Here you have much more control over how the texture is applied. Furthermore, you can colorize the texture in order to match it to the real material:



I also noticed that the option "ground merging" sometimes creates some strange effects, in particular when there is something like planes in the original aerial image that the algorithm tries to cover.

Regrading grass, my experience is that some materials (e.g. asphalt and concrete) prevent grass to appear, while others don't. Here I still have two problems: For the runway and taxiways, I'm covering grass of the aerial image with another grass material in order to have them appear differently. The algorithm still grows grass at that areas, which is in general the intended behavior. However, the grass is still colorized according to the original ground texture, which looks strange in some areas. Furthermore, I would like to reduce the height of the grass on my runway and the taxiways but found no way to do so.



Did you proceed with your issue?

 

[HEL Fly4ever]

Hey guys,
the other day when I tried to load in editor the previously saved airport project (.bgl) I'm working with this strange thing happened





The saved aprons,painted lines,and the runway appear only as an outline rather as a whole!
Has anyone else noticed such a strange behaviour from the scenery editor?
Could you please help in anyway,it will be way too difficult if not impossible to complete my project without knowing how things look like in SDK envirognment.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[SinusJayCee]

Did you check whether the properties of the elements have been saved correctly? Furthermore, did you use custom materials?

 

[HEL Fly4ever]

Did you check whether the properties of the elements have been saved correctly? Furthermore, did you use custom materials?

No I didn't use any custom material,only the SDK defaults!
Where must I check for the properties of the elements if they've been saved correctly?
I can't figure out why there are times all my airport assets appear correctly but most of the times they appear as in the photos above.However any other object like plastic fences,cones,bushes e.t.c. except aprons,the runway and the painted lines appear correctly!!

 

[HEL Fly4ever]

I tried to give things a chance and I compiled the airport anyway. Although all folders are correct and everything is located where it should the compiled package wont show up in the sim!!!Something is wrong here and I don't have a clue what it is...!!
Sinus I'm sorry highjacking your post and thank you for willingness to help me out.

 

[YohanNaz]

I tried to give things a chance and I compiled the airport anyway. Although all folders are correct and everything is located where it should the compiled package wont show up in the sim!!!Something is wrong here and I don't have a clue what it is...!!
Sinus I'm sorry highjacking your post and thank you for willingness to help me out.

I'd check out this gentleman and his trove of information:

 

[HEL Fly4ever]

Problem solved!!!
The reason was I didn't enter an ICAO "valid" code to the airfield but I rather entered "ZZZZ" which is the local code here in Greece for all non towered small airfields.As soon as I entered the airfield "legit" according to the sim LGKH code,presto...everything appeared in place and of course inside the sim!
However I noticed another strange issue:Although the runway numbering is correct 21/03 it appears inverted in the World Map when the flight is initiated.The 03 in place of 21 and vise versa.I tried to change it in the runway properties inside SDK but then the lettering appeared inverted!!Has anyone a clue what might be wrong?Also how we add a parking position in order to spawn the plane to a parking spot instead of the runway?

BTW SinusJay what type of grass (ground material?) did you use for your airfield as seen in your 2nd photo where the runway is shown?It looks amazing and I would definitely like to apply it to my project but it seems impossible to find which one exactly is.

Many thanks guys..!!

EDIT: o.k. with parking spots thanks to a youtube guy (as always)!

 

[SinusJayCee]

Sorry for my late reply, I somehow mist your your posts. Good to hear that you were able to solve your problem!

Regarding the runway numbering, I had the same problem as you. Make sure that your runway heading is correct. For example, if your runway has the number 21 (in the runway properties), then the heading should be roughly about 210 degrees. I assume that your runway has the number 21, but you accidentally rotated it by 180 degrees, such that the heading is somewhere around 30 degrees.

For my runway, I'm using the "Runway_Grass (Asobo_MaterialLib)" material. However, note that the 3D grass growing on the runway is mainly generated automatically based on the underlying aerial image.

 

[Geoffb]

I now solved my problem by using aprons to set the ground materials. Here you have much more control over how the texture is applied. Furthermore, you can colorize the texture in order to match it to the real material:

View attachment 62638

I also noticed that the option "ground merging" sometimes creates some strange effects, in particular when there is something like planes in the original aerial image that the algorithm tries to cover.

Regrading grass, my experience is that some materials (e.g. asphalt and concrete) prevent grass to appear, while others don't. Here I still have two problems: For the runway and taxiways, I'm covering grass of the aerial image with another grass material in order to have them appear differently. The algorithm still grows grass at that areas, which is in general the intended behavior. However, the grass is still colorized according to the original ground texture, which looks strange in some areas. Furthermore, I would like to reduce the height of the grass on my runway and the taxiways but found no way to do so.

View attachment 62639

Did you proceed with your issue?

I notice on the grass runway you have cones marking the boundaries. What material name do I find these, as I am creating several bush strips and the cones are pretty standard. It was interesting what you were saying about the grass properties being a mixture. I am starting the grass runway journey now.

 

[SinusJayCee]

The cones are custom models that I created in Blender. In fact nothing special, just literally a cone.

Let me know if you have new insights regarding the grass!

 

[Geoffb]

The cones are custom models that I created in Blender. In fact nothing special, just literally a cone.

Let me know if you have new insights regarding the grass!

In the scenery, after some digging, I found some witches hats, and some small red and white cones, that were pretty low, and some windsock protectors(sort of like concrete triangular shape, look about 1 metre long). I am hopeless at using the Gizmo to move these things about. But, like most things, just need more practise. I went back to the basic grass for runways, though looks more like a bowling green, as it needs some growth for a bush strip. Looks like I need to move the various adjustments about to get the grass looking a tad more natural.
How do you make 'rivers and streams'? I have one airstrip on the actual google overhead showing a stream off a lake that is supposed to be there at the threshold, but MFS simply did not extend the lake into a stream.
Now that I am getting more used to the SDK, I can make changes very quickly and see the results.
I need to get to grips with Blender, as i will need some tin huts for my Papua New Guinea strips.

 

[SinusJayCee]

In the scenery, after some digging, I found some witches hats, and some small red and white cones, that were pretty low, and some windsock protectors(sort of like concrete triangular shape, look about 1 metre long). I am hopeless at using the Gizmo to move these things about. But, like most things, just need more practise. I went back to the basic grass for runways, though looks more like a bowling green, as it needs some growth for a bush strip. Looks like I need to move the various adjustments about to get the grass looking a tad more natural.

You can open a dialog where you can adjust the numeric values of position and attitude of objects. Unfortunately, I don't have the exact way to open it in mind. Afaik it can be found in the menu of the scenery manager.

How do you make 'rivers and streams'? I have one airstrip on the actual google overhead showing a stream off a lake that is supposed to be there at the threshold, but MFS simply did not extend the lake into a stream.

I haven't done this yet, but there is a (brief) description in the SDK documentation on how to create water.

I need to get to grips with Blender, as i will need some tin huts for my Papua New Guinea strips.

I can recommend the official Blender tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa1F2ddGya_-UvuAqHAksYnB0qL9yWDO6

 

[Geoffb]

Regarding the grass on the runway, I plan to make several polygons along the runway and use the same grass but with different settings in the different polygons to see what changes I make.
I looked through the SDK, but could not find the reference to water, other than a pic..again, some experimenting will hopefully show the way.
I have had a look at blender a few times, thanks for the link...amazing software. I suspect it will be the 'how to eat an elephant' type experience. little steps. When I land at some of the airstrips and I see some buildings that look great, means the huts are in the scenery list some where..

 

[SinusJayCee]

Regarding the grass on the runway, I plan to make several polygons along the runway and use the same grass but with different settings in the different polygons to see what changes I make.

This sounds like a good idea. Let us know if you have any new insights!

I looked through the SDK, but could not find the reference to water, other than a pic..again, some experimenting will hopefully show the way.

It's located in "Developer Tools -> Scenery Editor" (<sdk-location>/Documentation/04-Developer_Tools/Scenery_Editor/index.html) and then section "Water Polygons".

When I land at some of the airstrips and I see some buildings that look great, means the huts are in the scenery list some where..

In general, yes. But if this is a custom scenery and you add the building/object to your scenery, it is not shown for others that don't have the respective custom scenery installed.

 

[Geoffb]

Thanks for the reply. Still playing with polys and different grasses etc. Will comment back when some sort of conclusion reached.
Found the developer tools previously...I just did not dig in deep enough. Will have a play with water. Looks like the area for water may need the water receptacle made deeper than the 'dry' land.
Yeah, I was thinking about the scenery in other airports, and as you say, the scenery is part of some one else's project, and of course, I have no access to these files. Umm, looks like a dive into Blender.